Saturday, December 26, 2009

Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research has initiated a project for promotion of medicinal tree plantations at Indian Medicine institutes in Chennai. As a part of the programme about 150 trees each are to be planted at National Institute of Siddha, Tambaram and Indian Medical practioners cooperative pharmacy and Stores ( IMPCOPS) a sixty five year old manufacturing company. The Conservator of Forest Chennai Circle Mr.V.Prabakaran. I.F.S has kindly agreed to provide the saplings of Important medicinal plants like Bilwa, Amla, Red sanders, Vengai, Vagai etc from the Velacherry nursery of the Forest Department under the Urban Forestry programme. Dr. K.V. Manikavasagam Director of the National Institute of Siddha organised the tree plantation programme and the Saplings were planted by Smt.Jalaja. Secretary, Department of Ayush and Mr.B.Anand, Jt. Secretary. Ayush in the NIS campus. Dr.M.K.Thiagarajan the secretary in-charge of IMPCOPS said the tree plantation is planned on 30th Dec.2009 as all directors representing different regions of the southern states will be present on the day. Dr. T.Thirunarayanan Secretary CTMR said this tree plantation activity will be extended to all institutions in a phased manner so that the traditional medical practice in the future will not suffer due to non-availability of medicinal tree parts.

Siddha garden at PHC a boon for patientsD Madhavan TNNChennai: The past eight years, S Meenakshi, a 65-year-old patient from Medavakkam has been suffering severe back pain. Hardly able to sleep at night, she would ask her son to give her a painkiller. However, once she began to avail treatment at the siddha clinic in the upgraded Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Medavakkam three months ago, her pain has reduced considerably. At the clinic, built in 1982, Meenakshi is treated with an extract from herbal plants being grown at the new siddha garden on the PHC premises. “I visited many hospitals to seek treatment for my back pain. But the siddha treatment has really made a difference,” says Meenakshi. The garden is now turning into a lifesaver in the suburbs. Said to be the first PHC there to have a siddha garden, there are more than 80 medicinal herbs and plants spread over 20,000 sq ft. Before the garden came up, the place was a dump yard covered by weeds. It was on July 14 that state health secretary V K Subburaj announced at a function at the PHC that a new siddha garden would be developed on the site, and thereafter the transformation slowly began. The process was not easy, though. Medical staff, including siddha medical officer, Dr T R Siddique Ali, and medical officer in charge of Medavakkam PHC, Dr Ramya Gowri, found it difficult to source the herbal plants needed. Thanks to the cooperation extended by the Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research, a city-based NGO that works on traditional medicine, and the state forest department, Dr Ali and Dr Ramya were able to source most of the herbal plants from the two agencies free of cost. They received guidance from district (Kancheepuram) health officer, Dr P M Krishna Kumar, on cultivation of herbal plants used often by patients.

THE HERBAL WAY: Dr Siddique Ali at the siddha garden in the Medavakkam public health centre

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Seven Students of international studies from USA- Long Island University Currently in their India Centre had an exposure visit to Meet Traditional Healers of Tamilnadu in Dharmapuri district and visited Govt Hospital and Primary health centre in Erode district, The student exchange programme is a component of understanding the traditional health practices and functioning of the Siddha system along side biomedicine in the public health delivery system in Tamilnadu on 22nd and 23rd Nov.2009.

The students also visited a GMP certified Siddha and Ayurveda drug manufacturing facility- SKM Siddha and Ayurveda Pharma P ltd.Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research organised the two days field programme and Dr.T.Thirunarayanan, secretary of CTMR briefed the students on the principles, practice of siddha medicine and its current status.

The six decades old multi-state cooperative society, Indian Medical Practitioners Cooperative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (IMPCOPS) based in Chennai has revived its GMP status after a period of two years. IMPCOPS, the only one ISM practitioners’ society in the co-operative sector in the country had lost its Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification in 2007 because of lack of infrastructural facilities and lack of continuous upgradation.Recently, the director board of the society has decided to increase its sales to Rs 35 crore in the next few years from its present turnover of Rs 17 crore. Following the decision, the board has approached the Chennai-based ISM service provider, Centre for Traditional Medicine and Research (CTMR) to suggest measures for achieving the lost GMP status. CTMR, after carrying out a detailed audit in the unit, recommended some proposals for reviving the earlier status. Along with this, IMPCOPS has prepared a project report to upgrade the lab and the manufacturing facilities to increase productivity and turnover. On submission of the report to the ISM directorate, inspections and testing of finished product samples were carried out by the concerned authorities in October this year, and finally the State Licensing Authority of ISM, Dr Sarojini Devi, has issued the long awaited Certificate to the society. The society has further appointed Vaidya. S Usman Ali and Dr T Thirunarayanan of CTMR as consultants to carry out the project.The upgradation envisages environmental friendly green energy, fuel efficient systems, alternate power source to overcome frequent power cuts, R.O plant etc. The Lab will develop Standard Manufacturing Procedures for herbo-mineral preparations which would be a model for other industries in the sector.The doctors-cum-manufacturers’ society has been manufacturing 700 formulations of Ayurveda,Siddha and Unani generic formulations and was the first ISM manufacturing facility in the country to mechanize its operational methods. The society claims that it has a live membership of 10,000 practitioners and possesses a good brand image for its products which are being produced without any deviation from the way the classical texts have illustrated and maintain good quality standards. However, the society has been encountering some kind of problems in supplying its products to various government institutions in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states due to non-renewal of GMP certification two years ago.According to sources, the society was struggling hard to upgrade its facilities as it has a huge manpower cost, besides a host of expenses including the maintenance of old equipment, increasing energy cost and processing of water. The delay in upgrading the facilities was the reason for losing the GMP status, said the consultant Dr T Thirunarayanan.Dr M K Thyagarajan, secretary of the society said that this initiative will help the company to fulfil institutional orders from government of India and other state governments and help increase its turnover. He said the workshop on GMP implementation conducted by CTMR last month was an eye opener to the different shop floor manufacturing supervisors and staffers who have assured to maintain the GMP status always. Impcops proposes to submit the project report to the Department of Ayush for assistance under Centre for Excellence Scheme. The joint secretary of Department of Ayush, B Anand during his recent visit to the company assured to consider the proposal as it is an old surviving cooperative and a pioneer in manufacturing ISM drugs.